Colombia Sketchbook part 3

Salento

Colombia Sketchbook part 2

To Armenia

From Medellin we went to the city of Armenia for the main part of the festival. This was the view from our hotel outside Armenia. The drive into the city from here took us past miles of coffee and banana farms. It was a little hard to leave this place.

The festival afterparty on the last night in Armenia. In the foreground are French artists Jerome Mulot, Florent Rupert and Peggy Burns.

At brunch the next day Power Paola had an amazing dress. She was one of many artists I met who I am very sorry not to be able to read. Her drawing is really great.

Below are some photos from out the window of the cab on the way up to Salento where we spent the weekend off before heading to Bogota. I missed a shot of an old discotheque which our driver said had been abandoned when two separate people claimed to have visions of the devil there.

This building was apparently once a discotheque run by one of Pablo Escobar's main lieutenants.

The next day in Salento we walked down to a coffee plantation and got a tour.

Sarah, Fran and Peggy.

These three guys were hanging out on the porch listening to super loud salsa music, holding it down, keeping it real.

These two guys helped out with the tour.

Medellin: day... uh...

Okay, we're still on day one. But the evening. Mark and Vivi had us all over to their rooftop for a barbecue, with baby potatoes, masa cakes and all sorts of juicy little bits of meat to dip in various sauces. So good. this is as we arrived: Santiago, Karol, Fran Lopez and Sarah Glidden

Below: Santiago Garcia who was really fun to banter with re: whether Frank Miller or Alan Moore was a better writer in the 80's. The last night in Medellin he and I had a little on-stage talk about topics closer to home, including, to my surprise, my dad's house and how to draw skateboarders on a Mac in 1986.

This was the roof before the sun was all the way down.

And Sarah appreciating the evening sky.

Some shadows on the wall from the futbol field across the street.

A very difficult to read image of the spread, with Karol and Fran Lopez.

The faceless figure on the right is Jesus Cossio from Peru, who had a lot of great questions at my talks, and probably did more drawings of the city than anyone (possibly excepting Sarah?).

It started raining shortly after the food had been eaten (good timing) and we all went downstairs into the apartment. Below are the ghosts of Fran, Joni B, Santiago and Truchafrita.

Hosts Mark and Vivi are on the left.

Mark with the very-hard-to-photograph-black-cat.

The very-hard-to-photograph-black cat.

The last night in Medellin Sarah and I ended up getting drinks with Mark and Vivi in Poblado after my talk (Vivi did simultaneous interpreting... what?). They're the best. It's a great sign when you go to a comics festival and can spend a whole night discussing art and politics, education and city planning, the importance of libraries and public transport, place and family ties.